Missing woman's remains found in Point Douglas home

A member of the Winnipeg Police Service's forensic unit leaves a rooming house in the 100 block of Lorne Ave. late Friday afternoon. Investigators found the remains of 37-year-old Myrna Letandre — the death is now being treated as a homicide. Photo Store

Family members of a Winnipeg woman missing since 2006 have been told the search is over with the discovery of human remains inside a city home this week.

The development comes following a homicide case on a tiny British Columbia island which revealed new information about the cold-case mystery.

Myrna Letandre was 37-years-old when family reported her missing in October 2006. She was last seen near Memorial Boulevard, and loved ones believed she may have gone to Alberta or British Columbia to visit friends.

Now it appears she may not have left the city at all. Investigators with a joint task force of RCMP and Winnipeg police officers discovered "significant" forensic evidence inside the residence at 97 Lorne Ave. in Point Douglas this week, sources told the Free Press Thursday.

The Free Press held off naming Letandre until confirming with sources that all family had been notified by late this morning.

Neighbours reported hearing the sound of a jackhammer inside the home Wednesday. A source has confirmed police dug into the foundation as part of the ongoing probe. They have also removed several boxes.

Police have released few details more than 48 hours after they began their top-secret search. But they did confirm their investigation involved the Project Devote task force set up to probe cases of missing and murdered women.

The RCMP and Winnipeg police teamed up for Project Devote in 2009 and have identified 20 homicides and eight missing-persons cases linked by one factor — the individuals were all at a high risk of becoming victims of violent crime. Letandre is one of those eight missing persons.

As well, sources also told the Free Press there is a clear link to the Winnipeg search and a recent homicide investigation in B.C. Police discovered scattered human remains Monday on a remote island near Alert Bay, off the east coast of Vancouver Island. They were confirmed as the remains of Jennifer McPherson, a former Winnipegger, who was reported missing from Hanson Island, B.C., on April 29.

Police have charged McPherson’s husband, Traigo Ehkid Andretti, with second-degree murder. Few details have been released about the killing while the investigation is ongoing.

Sources said Andretti, 37, and McPherson, 41, previously lived at the Lorne Avenue residence in Winnipeg before moving west about five years ago. The search of the rooming house, which has been vacant for at least six months, is directly connected to Andretti’s arrest this week and an ongoing investigation into his past, sources said.

The Free Press has learned Andretti, who may have used aliases in the past, has a form of autism and has previously caused concern among police and justice officials for failing to take prescribed medication. He has a prior criminal history in Manitoba and B.C., including a violent attack against McPherson.

Police in B.C. confirmed this week Andretti and McPherson were living on Hanson Island as caretakers for the past five years of a remote fishing resort called the Pacific Outback Resort.

Court documents obtained Thursday show Andretti was convicted in Winnipeg of three courtorder breaches in 2005. The offences occurred months earlier in the city and drew a fine.

After moving to B.C., he was charged with assaulting McPherson at the fishing resort in 2008 and received nine months’ probation. According to a July 2008 story in the North Island Gazette, lawyers told court he has a form of autism and was off his medication at the time.

"Mr. Andretti and his wife got into a verbal argument and she asked him to leave," Crown attorney John Blackman told court at the time. "He punched her once, nothing more, and she had a bloody nose. Mr. Andretti does have a form of autism and was off his medication. When he does that, it leads to negative behaviour."

The judge ordered Andretti to stay on his medication as a condition of his probation "so he will not be a danger to others and himself." McPherson wrote a letter to the court asking that the charges be dropped, according to the Gazette report.